Gallothai describes
the bar as having "distinct tones of whisky and smoke,
combined with an acid cocoa taste" and add that "a bouquet
of tobacco and a sheer touch of mushroom give this origin
chocolate a sensation, almost sensuous taste." Sounds more
like a wine than a chocolate by that account. I did not
taste any whisky, mushroom, or smoke. I did taste more
acidity and shaper choco-notes next to the Costa Rica.

Avg
price/gram: USD 0.056

Cocoa %: 65

Size: 45g

Gallothai in Thailand
manufactures an Origin Dark Collection of chocolate bars
made from the beans sourced from a a variety of
cacao-growing nations. The bars weren't cheap per
gram, so I only picked up two, unsure if Thailand could
really pull off a decent-tasting chocolate.
The first bar I chose was the
Costa Rica.
The Papua New Guinea was the second. Both
bars come with a hefty price tag per gram. I needn't
have worried about Thailand being able to execute a finely
made chocolate bar. Gallothai's Origin Dark
Collection series is manufactured in Belgium, and we all
know Belgium's experience with chocolate-making.

Belgium's Belcolade makes the chocolate in these
country-made bars for Gallothai, a portmanteau of the words
Gallo (a regional language of northern France) and Thai,
reflecting the company's cultural origins. Gallothai
is not a bean-to-bar manufacturer.
Their main focus is chocolate confectionary, and this, too,
they buy in bulk and refashion it in Thailand before it's
sold. The Duc de Praslin line is the company's way of
educating the Thai marketplace about better chocolate, a
tall task indeed. The Thais are currently at a third
grade level when it comes to knowledge about quality
chocolate

I have not yet been to either
Costa Rica or Papua New Guinea. I chose those two
country bars as my initial foray into Gallothai because they
contained the same cocoa solid content. I wanted to
keep this taste experiment as controlled as possible by
limiting the number of changing variables. The
objective was to compare the bean flavor from the two
countries, and this can be done more accurately if the cocoa
percentages are equal or near equal than if one had 34% and the other 64%.

Although this Papua New
Guinea bar is listed on the wrapper as 64%, if you want to
be pedantic about it, the bar is 65% -- 56% cocoa mass and
9% cocoa butter. The Papua New Guinea beans have a
darker flavor than their Costa Rican counterpart. There's slightly less sugar in this bar
and more vanilla. Gallothai
describes the bar as having "distinct tones of whiskey and
smoke, combined with an acid cocoa taste" and add that "a
bouquet of tobacco and a sheer touch of mushroom give this
origin chocolate a sensation, almost sensuous taste."
Sounds more like a debaucherous night out of weed, magic
mushrooms, whiskey, and women than a chocolate bar, by that account.

I did not taste any whiskey,
mushroom, or smoke. I did taste more acidity and
shaper choco-notes compared to the Costa Rica. There wasn't a
night-and-day difference between the two chocolate bars and,
in the first few bites, I couldn't be sure which one I
preferred more. That preference became only more
obvious when I was two-thirds of the way through each bar,
deciding only marginally in Papua New Guinea's favor.
My verdict contravenes the general American preference for
Costa Rica (as an immigrant destination) over Papua New
Guinea. Nothing revelatory there. Since when did
cocoa preferences mirror immigration locales? Look at
Ivory Coast. That nation produces some fine cocoa
beans -- and even less
people would choose to immigrate there than Papua New
Guinea.

Perhaps a more sophisticated chocolate palate than my own is required to discern
the subtle taste differences in bean flavors between
countries. A half decade ago I took a
wine tour of the Yarra Valley in Melbourne. My
tour guide, Nick, told me he could tell the difference
between merlot wines made from South African grapes,
Australian grapes, Chilean grapes, etc. The soils and
climates would be different in each country, thus altering
flavors, but to be able to discern location based on a
taste? Can you eat a mango and state with
authority that it's a Thai mango, Australian mango, or
Mexican mango. I definitely can't -- and mangoes
aren't a further processed food item. Nick must've had
some palate (or been a big talker). I'll leave it to
men with their nano-tuned palates to savor the tobacco,
smoke,
mushroom, whiskey, and whatever odors you smell at a
Koh
Phangan Full Moon Party.

At the end of the day, consider this. You'll
probably never arrange a vacation tour to Papua New Guinea. Gallothai, with this bar, pulls off a decent tour of Papua
New Guinea's choco-landscape. Visit Costa Rica's
beaches as you munch on this bar.

Thailand has Belgian chocolate produced by Belcolade. The dark chocolate is sourced in Belgium from beans grown in Papua New Guinea. Gallothai markets
the Belgian chocolate bar as Duc de Praslin. The dark chocolate is part of the Origin dark collection series. Like the chocolate republic with Doug of Doug's Republic?